What Are the Benefits of Microsoft Office 365?

Microsoft Office 365 enables small and mid-sized businesses to increase performance, collaboration and efficiency at an enterprise level — and all at an affordable price.

With Microsoft Office 365, you can get all your employees on a single unified communications platform that is accessible from any device with zero downtime — without having to upgrade to new hardware, update your server or purchase additional server licenses.

Employees can perform their daily tasks — from calendaring to creating and editing documents, communicating with customers, tracking mileage and more — without having to learn new software.

Here are six of the biggest benefits of upgrading to Microsoft Office 365 for SMBs.

#1 Easy Access to All Your ToolsAs a unified suite of hosted services, Microsoft Office 365 offers online access to email, as well as all the newest versions of Microsoft Office’s most popular products, including Word, Excel, Publisher, OneNote, Outlook and PowerPoint. Users can also access a shared calendar, as well as critical applications such as Skype for Business, SharePoint and OneDrive.

The integration with these products is seamless, and you get all the same outstanding features and capabilities you would expect from Microsoft Office products with added synchronization and collaboration capabilities. Microsoft Office 365 also comes with 50 GB of email storage space, eliminating the need for users to continually purge their emails. Plus, it includes all licensing, so everyone is always working from the same version and upgrades are on the same schedule.

#2 Reduced Need for Tech SupportIT departments in small businesses are lean and as budgets continue to shrink, you’re asked to do more with fewer resources. Microsoft Office 365 is ideal for companies with small — or even no — dedicated IT staff. Technology maintenance is minimum, IT administration is streamlined and there is no need for onsite server hardware.

Microsoft Office 365’s web-based portal is easy to use and intuitive. Setting up your accounts and adding users is simple. The burden of maintaining hardware is taken off your in-house IT staff, so they can focus on more important things that directly affect your business.

#3 Access from Any Device 24/7Because Microsoft Office 365 is accessible through a secure web portal, you can use any device to access it at any time. Certain license levels also allow users to have click-to-run applications on their devices.

Your employees will have instant access to email, as well as all their documents, contacts and calendars from their desktop PC, smartphone or other mobile device. You can even access documents from most web browsers.

The result is a more flexible workforce that can securely access their files without having to be at their desks or in the office. All they need to work is a secure internet connection. With Microsoft Office 365, all emails, documents and contacts are automatically synced across all devices. In other words, an employee can start working on a document on her office computer and edit it later on her tablet at home.

#4 Increased SecurityData breaches and cyber attacks are a constant concern for today’s businesses. Microsoft Office 365 provides protection against security threats to your company’s networks, emails and important documents. Instead of having to manage a hardware application to stop SPAM and malware on your own, Microsoft Office 365 includes constant online SPAM and malware protection with each license to safeguard your important data.

Through the use of multiple datacenters and a financially backed service level agreement, Microsoft guarantees uptimes of 99.9%, so you receive redundant, enterprise-level disaster recovery. Because all your data is safely stored in the cloud, it is secure and always available.

#5 More CollaborationMicrosoft Office 365 also enables your employees to work together more efficiently. Enterprise content management functionality provides a single location to store content and files, complete with version control. You can create a password-protected portal to share files with users both inside and outside your organization to facilitate and encourage collaboration. Users can also send instant messages and meeting invites to employees and customers.

#6: Lower CostsAnother benefit is total cost of ownership. There are no upfront costs, and pay-as-you-go pricing options allow you to buy only the services you need, when you need them. You can also add or decrease the number of users as your business needs change, providing the affordable scalability to fit any size of budget.

Simplify the application deployment and configuration process with Aventis Systems’ Application Installation Services. We will oversee the application rollout across multiple servers and, if necessary, complete the application configuration based on your individual requirements.

To learn more about Microsoft Office 356 and other Microsoft products for your business, contact us today at 1-855-AVENTIS.